The Dark Knight Rises

[thaima1shu]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

Its all about preference. I liked The Avengers more than TDKR. I love batman but like Marvel > DC so The Avengers was enjoyed more.

I think its awesome to have so many great Comic book movies being released that so many people can like what they like and not the one that didnt suck.

Yup, it's great that we've got so many awesome comic book movies. There's something out there for every comic book fan.

[Blzer]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

Tom Hardy rocked an awesome tan line from his mask during shooting.

[DickDalewood]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

LOL! That's awesome.

Actually, seeing that picture just made me realize that they removed his tattoos in the film. I forgot he had those.

[Beantown]

Ha, that's awesome.

[BlueNGold]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

I feel like watching The Dark Knight after seeing this (which I just did) makes TDK even better. But now I'm really wishing I had TDKR on Blu-Ray to watch now.

[Buckeyes_Doc]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

Great movie. I think The Dark Knight was the better movie but TDKR was still fantastic. Anne Hathaway surprised me with how well she did and she looked so good in this movie.

[MizzouBravesFan]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

The greatest cinematic experience I've had since..........The Dark Knight. It was even better for me than watching The Avengers in the theater, and I loved The Avengers.

An absolute epic masterpiece, just not enough words and superlatives for me to rave about...love it, seeing it again ASAP.

Nolan's vision of Batman, the characters, and his world are paralleled by NO OTHER incarnation of Batman...he is the ruler. The way he was able to make three distinct films that were all incredible while tying in ALL of them into one tight story was just remarkable IMO.

LOTR is my favorite movie trilogy but Nolan's Batman is like 1/4 of a step behind it.

MIND...BLOWN...

[Equinox831]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

I feel like watching The Dark Knight after seeing this (which I just did) makes TDK even better. But now I'm really wishing I had TDKR on Blu-Ray to watch now.

I did the same exact thing last night but I watched Batman Begins too and it really enhanced the entire trilogy. TDKR pulls more from Batman Begins than The Dark Knight and that's why I view the ending in a different way than most. If you haven't seen the movie for the love of god don't open this spoiler, I would hate to ruin this amazing movie for anyone.

Spoiler

I think Bruce Wayne didn't actually escape to Florence. That all had to be a dream by Alfred. There's no plausible way that he survived that. He was still in The Bat with 5 seconds left until the detonation of the bomb and even with the auto-pilot he wouldn't have been able get out of the blast radius. He had to have died in that. Also with all of the other more subtle hints and clues in the dialogue from all three movies it all points to him ultimately meeting his fate to save Gotham. I also am really into music, it's what I'm going to school for so I noticed something that solidified my theory in my mind. In Batman Begins, after Bruce's parents are shot and Gordon comes in to comfort Bruce the song Barbastella plays in the background not only to set the mood, but signify the start of the Batman.

Spoiler

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Fast forward to The Dark Knight Rises. When Batman is making his flight over the bay to save Gotham, one scene stuck with me. The close up of his face as the bomb ticks down from 5 and ultimately detonates. You can see him accepting the fate that he has come to. During that scene the song from The Dark Knight Rises soundtrack called Rise plays.

Spoiler

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The scene I outlined earlier where he accepts his fate and the bomb goes off occurs at 1:01 into the song. That right there, sealed it in my mind. I strongly believe that the use of that song was planned to be used when Batman reached his fate back in 2005 when Nolan was mapping out the series from start to finish. The song signified the start and the end of Batman. I could go on and on about why I feel he met his fate and didn't escape but I'll leave it at that. I love the way it ended because it is so open and someone could come along right now and try to shoot my theory down and I'm completely fine with that. Both sides of the argument over the end has evidence and good counter-arguments for the other side, what more could we ask for? I'm so sad that this masterpiece of a trilogy is over.

[JohnnytheSkin]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

Crap, the Tom Hardy tan line makes me wonder what I'm facing when I shave my year long beard...oh the humanity!

[TheMatrix31]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

Agreed 100%, Equinox.

[BlueNGold]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

I did the same exact thing last night but I watched Batman Begins too and it really enhanced the entire trilogy. TDKR pulls more from Batman Begins than The Dark Knight and that's why I view the ending in a different way than most. If you haven't seen the movie for the love of god don't open this spoiler, I would hate to ruin this amazing movie for anyone.

Spoiler

I think Bruce Wayne didn't actually escape to Florence. That all had to be a dream by Alfred. There's no plausible way that he survived that. He was still in The Bat with 5 seconds left until the detonation of the bomb and even with the auto-pilot he wouldn't have been able get out of the blast radius. He had to have died in that. Also with all of the other more subtle hints and clues in the dialogue from all three movies it all points to him ultimately meeting his fate to save Gotham. I also am really into music, it's what I'm going to school for so I noticed something that solidified my theory in my mind. In Batman Begins, after Bruce's parents are shot and Gordon comes in to comfort Bruce the song Barbastella plays in the background not only to set the mood, but signify the start of the Batman.

Spoiler

<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QiXRlJOvH-s?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QiXRlJOvH-s?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Fast forward to The Dark Knight Rises. When Batman is making his flight over the bay to save Gotham, one scene stuck with me. The close up of his face as the bomb ticks down from 5 and ultimately detonates. You can see him accepting the fate that he has come to. During that scene the song from The Dark Knight Rises soundtrack called Rise plays.

Spoiler

<<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EgQYveThqwI?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EgQYveThqwI?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

The scene I outlined earlier where he accepts his fate and the bomb goes off occurs at 1:01 into the song. That right there, sealed it in my mind. I strongly believe that the use of that song was planned to be used when Batman reached his fate back in 2005 when Nolan was mapping out the series from start to finish. The song signified the start and the end of Batman. I could go on and on about why I feel he met his fate and didn't escape but I'll leave it at that. I love the way it ended because it is so open and someone could come along right now and try to shoot my theory down and I'm completely fine with that. Both sides of the argument over the end has evidence and good counter-arguments for the other side, what more could we ask for? I'm so sad that this masterpiece of a trilogy is over.

Spoiler

Great points. I just don't get why Alfred would be imagining Bruce with Selina if it were a dream.

[Candyman5]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

Spoiler

Great points. I just don't get why Alfred would be imagining Bruce with Selina if it were a dream.

Spoiler

Correct me if im wrong but Alfred never see's Selina except that first scene so why would he dream about her being with bruce?

[BlueNGold]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

Spoiler

Correct me if im wrong but Alfred never see's Selina except that first scene so why would he dream about her being with bruce?

Spoiler

Yeah, that's my point. I don't think he sees enough of Selina to imagine her as a love interest for Bruce. By the time he leaves, he was trying to get Bruce to consider Miranda/Talia as that.

I also just think that if they were really going to have Bruce die, they weren't going to leave it up to be interpreted as a dream sequence.

I think they made the scene of Bruce/Batman flying out over the sea with the bomb look as if there was absolutely no way he could survive that so that they could have the surprise ending of Bruce still being alive.

Also, when that music is playing and they show what looks like Batman accepting his fate with the bomb, to me that's just Bruce realizing that this is it as his time as Batman and he's basically reminiscing on his journey to get to this point, not that he's going to die.

And what would be the point of him fixing the auto-pilot on the Batwing if he wasn't going to use it?

EDIT: Watching the movie again right now and I love the line Bane delivers near the beginning.

Spoiler

"Calm down, Doctor. Now is not the time for fear. That comes later."

Bane does get undercut by the Talia reveal in the final act but I don't think people give Tom Hardy enough credit for his performance as Bane. IMO he does more than a fair job of following up Heath Ledger's legendary performance in TDK.

EDIT 2: Something I just caught regarding my original unedited post....

Spoiler

I think my reasoning for thinking Alfred wouldn't imagine Bruce with Selina if the ending were a dream just got turned upside down.

15 minutes into the movie, when Bruce is researching Selina in the Batcave, Alfred says: "Fascinating. You two should exchange notes over coffee." And then he goes on to tell Bruce about his fantasy of seeing him in Italy with a wife (and possibly kids) and that they wouldn't say anything to each other, knowing that Bruce was finally happy and he had made it.

So now if you interpret the ending as a dream, it basically means that Alfred, after mourning Bruce at his grave, fantasizes about seeing Bruce because making that final sacrifice for Gotham brought him happiness.

I think I just got Inception'd. ****.

[Kashanova]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

Spoiler

my main thing is why mention auto-pilot being fixed if he's not going to survive anyways. Also another thing that came to mind is I wouldn't put it past Nolan to should Batman seeing this is his final moment as Batman but that image probably happened before the bat is at the sea anyway. For me I think Batman gets out of the bat when he fires at the building and there was a bunch of smoke behind the bat

[BlueNGold]

Re: The Dark Knight Rises

Spoiler

my main thing is why mention auto-pilot being fixed if he's not going to survive anyways. Also another thing that came to mind is I wouldn't put it past Nolan to should Batman seeing this is his final moment as Batman but that image probably happened before the bat is at the sea anyway. For me I think Batman gets out of the bat when he fires at the building and there was a bunch of smoke behind the bat

Spoiler

Maybe to leave it for Blake? I don't know.

I still tend to lean towards Bruce living and it not being a dream sequence, but there is a lot of weight to hold up the other side of the argument. We haven't even mentioned some of the lines throughout the trilogy like "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain" or Selina saying "There are no fresh starts in today's day and age" (or something along those lines), which is what is implied at the end - that Bruce is starting fresh and no one but Alfred and Selina know where he is or that he's alive.

But again, I still take the ending at face value and think Bruce truly did live.